I am getting ready to go to Tracy Stilwell's and Linda Willis's art retreat in Rhode Island. We went last winter and had the most marvelous time. It may have been the best art retreat I ever went on.
I don't do well in crowds. Even as a teacher, I feel overwhelmed by a large art gathering and often lose myself in the crowd. I am more comfortable being invisible, taking a class quietly, eating by myself, and sitting somewhere and sketching before going to bed in my hotel room early.
But since I met this wonderful group of women through Art Is, i admit tht I look forward to Art Is all year and can be found going out to dinner, mingling in the vendor room, and meeting and greeting all weekend.
The Rhode Island art retreat is very different. It's just about a dozen women, held in Tracy's gorgeous home that she shares with her partner, Sue, and Tracy and Linda, The Fabric Goddess, cook for us. Can you imagine?
Last year, I went on my birthday weekend and the ladies made me blush with all the fuss when they made me gifts and bought me a beautiful birthday cake. So I wanted to go all out in bringing little gifties for them. You know that is a large part of any art retreat - swaps, or gifts if the groups is small enough.
Work is rather intense right now, so I knew I wouldn't have time to do anything too intensive. Micalenagela and I had just been involved in a project that involved a lot of typography and I have found myself more and more intrigued with hand-lettering. So I decided to make some Valentines.
Like any project, I always underestimate the time to do it in, so it became a rather drawn out affair, all puns intended. I had to take Thursday off just to get it all done (as well as catch up on the laundry, the bills, medical insurance issues, and all those boring things that are necessary but eat up all your time.
I liked doing these Valentines so much! I really enjoyed doing hand lettering and inventing alphabets for each one. It was a really good exercise in a new area of art and one that I am sure to become more involved in. I can't wait to take Joanne Sharpe's class, which begins in February. She is the master of hand lettering. I've seen her work in person and it is just bursting with color and her lettering is juicy, artful, and exuberant!
I apologize for the ridiculous quality of these photographs. In mid January, it's hard to photograph work during the week when you get home after dark. So I decided I would take the artwork with me to work and photograph it at lunch. Unfortunately, it was still not that bright yesterday. I couldn't find a level surface to photograph on as all the benches around the office are to close to the entrance. I didn't want a million people watching me and coming over to ask me what I was doing.
I got in my car and drove to a few parking lots over. I parked out of the sun but not in the shade. I put the artwork on the hood of my car. (A Mini doesn't really have a flat surface, I found out.) Due to the slant of the hood, I had to put it up by the windshield. Which meant I had to lean really far over. Then the wind picked up and I had to photograph with one hand and keep a finger on a corner just until I was ready to snap. Which, of course, was just when the wind picked up.
Did you hear me swearing as I ran across the parking lot, screaming at my cards not to go into the water as the wind whipped them across the pavement. You could have! I am sure several people in that hotel were hanging out the window looking at the crazy woman photographing the hood of her car and then running around the parking space looking for pieces of artwork.
Sigh.
My next big accomplishment: building a photography booth. Time to invest in a place to treat my artwork seriously. And stop entertaining the neighboring office parks!
